


Up a Tree

by moondansr



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Wincest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-02
Updated: 2014-02-02
Packaged: 2018-01-10 20:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1164395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moondansr/pseuds/moondansr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean just can’t seem to leave Sam alone to do what he wants to do.  Then he reads a spell out of an ancient book and the thing actually works.  They might be able to solve things by reading the counter spell, but it’s never that easy, is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up a Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [SPN Reverse Bang](http://spn-reversebang.livejournal.com/)
> 
> Special thanks to my artist [arosepratt](http://arosepratt.livejournal.com/) for being so easygoing and patient as well as for her inspiring art!
> 
> Thank you to [stormlyht](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht) for being my beta and always being there for me.

Sam flipped through the book still trying to make sense of it. The problem with suddenly having row after row of obscure references was always finding the right thing. He’d taken on the job of organizing things, but this book, half journal half spell book, defied definition. He didn’t know what shelf to put it on. It didn’t help that the spells weren’t always labeled.

“Hey, Sammy, you up for a drive into town?” Dean entered the room in an obviously good mood. “I need to go on a supply run.”

Lately Dean wanted his company all the time and that could be frustrating since they didn’t both enjoy exactly the same things.

“I think I’ll stay behind this time,” Sam replied, eyes flickering right back to the book. Dean sat down on the table beside the book, drawing Sam’s eyes again.

“Take a break. You’ve been at it for days. You’ll fry your brain.”

“No, I won’t.” Sam sighed and gave Dean his full attention. “This is never getting done if somebody doesn’t do it.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, take a break,” Dean put his hand on the book, leaning in to look at it. “What’s this anyhow?”

“A journal, and a spell book.” Sam moved to pull the book away from Dean.

“What kind of spells?” Dean asked, reading the top word on the page out loud, the Latin sounding a bit odd as he did. “Where are the components? It says… wave right?”

“Yeah, it’s… different from what we’re used to and I’m not sure how these work or even if they work.”

Dean pulled the book back from Sam and read more of the spell.

“Stop it Dean. We don’t even know what that spell does.”

Grinning, Dean pulled the book a bit closer then he waved to the right like he was saying hi to someone. “Don’t be so serious, Sammy. No way this is working.”

“Give me that.” Sam grabbed hold of the book, turning it to the side and peering at the spell. “Just… don’t take risks.”

Dean snorted. “The last words are favete linguis, seriously.”

Of course Dean would find the phrase funny. Its direct translation was, favor me with your tongues. “It means be silent, Dean, not whatever your perverted mind’s come up with.”

Dean just laughed. “Latin is funny. So, have I cast the spell?”

Sam looked down, feeling some concern. Dean was just fooling around, and his mock casting wasn’t likely to do anything, but it still worried him. “I hope not.” Sam put down the book, closing it. “Anyhow, you should go without me. I still have tons to do. If you’re lonely take Mrs. Tran with you.”

“Don’t want her, want you.”

“Too bad,” Sam squawked, “I’m staying here.” He paused. He was perched on his chair and everything seemed much larger than it had moments before but that wasn’t the only problem. Adding to it was the fact that Dean had turned into a bird and he sounded suspiciously bird like himself.

Dean stared down at Sam from the table. He ruffled his brown feathers and whistled out a few times, bird sounds issuing from him. Then he jumped off the table, spread his wings and started to fly. More excited noises fell from his beak as he swooped and glided around the room. Finally, he landed on the spell book and pecked at it a bit.

Exasperated Sam hopped onto the table. It took a few tries as he had to fly a bit to get up. Once he realized that, however, he found flying easier than expected. If things ran true the counter spell was probably on the next page, turning the page was hard though. Sam didn’t want to damage the book, but Dean seemed much less concerned about that. With a flurry of wings, beak and feet he nearly managed it before a loud thud startled them both.

*

“I thought I heard birds!” Mrs. Tran stared at the two birds on the table incredulously. “Alright, out with you. Birds do not belong inside.” With that she came at them, shooing them with her hands.

Mrs. Tran had never met two birds quite so rowdy and cleaver. The smaller one had a sharp beak and actually attacked her several times while the larger one with the longer feathers seemed preoccupied with the book on the table. It kept returning to the thing again and again. She could only think that the bird wanted to make a nest and intended to use the book for nesting material. It looked like some attempts had already been made.

“That’s it!” After being pecked a third time Mrs. Tran had had enough. She left the room and returned with a broom. It took nearly half an hour but eventually she cleared both birds out, not only out of the room, but right out the door into the snow. Satisfied with her accomplishment, Mrs. Tran returned inside to clean up. A few things had fallen in the process of ridding the house of the birds.

*

Dean squawked at the retreating Mrs. Tran loudly, then hopped over to his brother, tentatively cleaning a few of his feathers as he nuzzled him off the ground. He heard himself cheeping softly as he tried to evaluate Sam’s possible injuries. He was pretty sure the broom hit Sam hard. Sam recovered quickly, however, flapping his wings in irritation until Dean backed off.

It was cold. Dean looked down at his feet and wondered if he was the sort of bird that was supposed to fly south in the winter. Then he wondered if the spell would just wear off, or if they were stuck like this forever. Just as he realized they needed to get back inside, Sam hit him with a spray of snow.

Dean stared at his brother, who appeared to be purposely using his wings to gather snow off the ground and send it hurtling at Dean. That was unfair. It was hardly all Dean’s fault. Dean flew into the air. A moving target would be harder to hit. With a loud tweet, he dive bombed his brother who flew into the air to avoid being tackled. Dean lifted his beak, skimming the ground and looped around, chasing Sam up into the air.

Sam was a bit slower at flying than Dean, but he made up for it somehow by finding superior conditions in the air, winds to lift him and speed him along. Dean was after him for a very long time before the two of them finally came to rest on one of the top branches of a towering old pine tree.

Sam let out an indignant, if somewhat tired squawk and Dean returned it. He wasn’t any happier about the situation than Sam was, and maybe he did read the spell, but it really shouldn’t have worked.

*

“Mom, what’s up with all of the noise?” First it had been his mother, crashing through the house, running after a wild animal or something. Then he’d recognized the sound of her cleaning up and had to come out of his room. It was hard to concentrate. Kevin’s eyes took in the broken vase his mother was cleaning.

“There were birds in here, those boys need to learn to close the doors when they leave.”

“It’s sort of cold to be leaving doors open.” Kevin looked around the room, eyes landing on the book on the table. He went over and picked it up. Sam had been doing a lot with books lately. He wasn’t sure what the project was but it seemed odd this single book had been left out.

“Well, they must have or there wouldn’t be birds inside of the house flying around. I’m talking to them when they get back. This might be a safe place but how safe is it if they don’t secure the doors?”

“Yeah,” Kevin agreed out of habit, running his fingers over the marks on the pages. Silently he read the page the book was open to, then he flipped it and took a look at the next page. “What happened to this book?”

“One of those nasty birds wouldn’t leave it be.” Mrs. Tran left the room then. Kevin had a feeling she was looking for some soap or something. When she started cleaning she liked to make everything shine.

Kevin mumbled the counter spell softly, the latin translation flowing easily from his lips. It had to do with transformation and he found himself worrying that Sam and Dean might not have actually ended up leaving for supplies. If Sam and Dean were birds though… Kevin shook his head and stood up, closing the book and putting it to the side before returning to his room.

*

*Pop* *Pop*

Just like that they were human again. Sam looked down, down, down and the snow covered ground below. His legs were draped over a tree branch and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about his current position. Across from him Dean began laughing uproariously.

“It’s not funny, Dean!” Sam rubbed at his freezing nose and then reached out to steady himself on the branch, his stomach lurching. “How the hell are we gonna get down?”

It did nothing to sober Dean though. He kept on laughing. “Climb?” Dean shook his head, “Not like we’ve never climbed a tree before.”

That had been a rather long time ago however and Sam knew with complete certainty they’d never climbed this high. “Be serious, it’s freezing out here. We need to get down!”

Dean reached over and patted his cheek in a totally annoying way only a brother could. “We’ll get down Sammy, no big deal.”

“No big deal? We must be… we’re really high up and I don’t see very many branches near the bottom.”

“People climb palm trees.” Dean seemed completely unaware of the size of their problem.

Sam tried to keep the panic out of his voice but it was hard, “Palm trees, are not very thick. This tree, is. It’s not the same thing at all.”

“You know if you keep it up I’m gonna think you’re scared of heights.”

“I am not scared of heights,” Sam replied through clenched teeth. He’d always been able to hide it. They dealt with heights plenty and somehow he’d gotten through. Now Dean just had to notice, didn’t he? “I’m fine.” He shut his mouth and tried to be fine.

Dean took hold of one of his hands and tugged at him. Sam’s entire body felt it, as if he’d slipped and was falling down, totally disoriented. Of course he hadn’t. Sam clung to the branch squishing Dean’s hand against the tree bark as he did.

“Jesus Sammy, careful!” Dean snatched his hand back, shaking his head. “Look, you aren’t going to fall, you’re fine.”

“That’s easy for you to say!”

Dean laughed again and Sam glared at him.

“You’re a big jerk, you know that?”

“Whatever, bitch.” This time when Dean pulled Sam towards him he was firm, but more gentle. “Come on Sammy, get over here.”

“What’s that going to do?”

“Well, to start you’ll be more stable closer to the trunk. Besides that, I want to get my arms around you.”

Sam had been moving closer to Dean a bit at a time, but for that he paused. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Why would you want to…?”

“Just get over here.” Dean finally had him so that they were pressed directly against each other. He put his arms around Sam and held him tight. “We’re just about the same height like this.”

“I don’t understand. When did you start wanting to… cuddle?” Sam couldn’t think of a better word for what they were doing.

“I didn’t.” Dean fell silent, his hand ran up and down Sam’s back in a way that was really soothing. It was nice. A part of Sam had to admit that much.

“Then why are you holding me?”

“I want to.” Dean finally let go, moving enough to meet Sam’s eyes. Sam saw a desire there that was not at all brotherly. “I want you.” There was no way to mistake the words for anything other than what they were.

“We can’t do that. You know we can’t.” Sam looked away from Dean’s intense gaze but as soon as he saw the ground so far below his eyes snapped back. The way Dean had been acting lately came back to Sam in sharp relief and he realized what he’d been avoiding. A part of him had known about Dean’s interest, had been avoiding it.

“Sammy,” Dean said, leaning in and kissing Sam. At first the kiss was gentle and warm, but it heated up quickly until Sam’s head was spinning for a whole different reason from before. Although he’d been cold, Sam suddenly felt intensely warm. He pressed against Dean, enjoying what he was sure he shouldn’t.

Dean pulled away just long enough to say, “Yeah, Sammy.”

For a long time they were like that, hot and hard against each other, kiss following kiss. Dean’s hands went under Sam’s shirt touching his skin and Sam shivered, from the cold he told himself. Dean had wonderful hands, calloused fingers which were rough but skilled finding every way to make Sam want the moment to go on.

A part of him wondered why they had never kissed before but it wasn’t hard to find the answer, so he tried to drop the question. They were brothers, they shouldn’t.

Sam pulled back finally, breathing out his question, “Why are we doing this?”

“Because we can,” Dean replied, trying to tempt him back into making out with a skillful kiss.

“We don’t just do things because we can.” They would have destroyed cities, taken down gods, closed the gates of hell if they did whatever they could.

“Because we want to then,” Dean said, sandwiching the words with kisses.

“We don’t do everything we want to.”

“If we did I would have done this a long time ago,” Dean agreed, finally stopping to meet Sam’s eyes.

“Then why now…?” Sam might have said more but Dean was quick to answer.

“I’m tired of telling myself no, of sleeping with woman after woman when all I want is you.”

Sam felt as if his heart stopped at those words. “I’m all you want?”

“Yes,” Dean’s answer was immediate and Sam lost the will to resist him in that moment. He leaned in for another kiss, and another, and another.

*

Dean was the one who finally ended the make out session. It wasn’t because he wanted to. He’d wanted his brother for such a long time and this had been the first time he’d actually told Sammy. When they got out of the tree he was afraid Sam would avoid him, that they would never be able to continue. The thing was the branch between his legs was really cramping his style and besides that he was going numb in bad places. “We need to get out of this tree.”

“Yeah.” Sam’s voice, soft and full of desire, made Dean even less happy that he’d had to push away.

Dean took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. I think the best way is to take it in steps. I’ll climb down to the next branch.”

He looked around and found a reasonable one, pointing it out, “Then you climb down to it too. After that we’ll pick the next one until we get to the ground.”

“I really don’t think we can get to the ground like that.” Sam’s face showed his uncertainty once more.

Dean shook his head. “If we get to a point where it’s not that certain we’ll figure something else out.”

It took a few moments before Sammy nodded agreement. “Fine.”

It worked for a while, Dean led the way and slowly they made their way further and further down until the branches thinned to almost nothing. Dean could tell the next branch down probably wouldn’t hold him. The one he was on was bowing under his weight and Sam had stopped one branch above.

“That’s it Dean, we can’t keep going.”

Dean tried to measure the remaining distance to the ground with his eyes. “I could jump.”

“You’ll break your neck!”

Dean could hear the panic in Sammy’s voice and it wasn’t completely unreasonable.

“Don’t you dare do it.”

Sammy must have seen him thinking somehow.

“Well,” as much as Dean hated to admit defeat it looked like they were going to need help. “I could call someone.”

He fished his phone out of his jeans and dialed Kevin.

“Why didn’t we just do that in the first place!”

Dean glanced up at Sam’s angry, flashing eyes and shrugged. “I guess we could have, might have lost out on a great make out session though.”

Sam turned red as Dean got Kevin’s voicemail. He called just about every number in the phone but they didn’t have all that many friends these days and soon enough he was back to Kevin. “Hey, Kevin, this is Dean. Listen, Sam and I could use a hand so when you get this come outside and find us, will you?”

After he hung up he looked at Sam. “Keep an eye out for Kevin, will you? I think I’ll take a nap.”

“Dean! Don’t you dare!!!”

*

Sam kept thinking that Dean might actually be sleeping, so he talked to his brother regularly as minutes turned into hours. Just as he was starting to think they would have to spend the night in the stupid tree he saw a huge machine making it’s way out towards them. It looked like the lifts that the electric company used to fix wires.

“Dean, do you see that?”

“Yeah, Kevin must have figured things out.” Dean waved, but Sam had no idea if the driver saw them. He was reminded of a similar wave though.

“No more reading spells out loud,” Sam said. “This hasn’t been funny at all.”

“I might agree to that.” Dean grinned up at him. “For a price.”

Sam didn’t think any sort of payment ought to be necessary. “Just don’t.”

“No, I’m doing it all over again unless you promise to let me kiss you again.”

Sam felt himself flush as he turned his attention to the machine. It was definitely headed their way.

“I’m serious, Sammy.”

Sam looked down at Dean. “I think it would be fine for us to kiss again.” It might not be a normal thing to do, but Sam thought that in this case it was alright. Right or wrong, he loved his brother in exactly the kissing way.


End file.
